Trucks, boats, automobiles and other vehicles are commonly equipped with various signal communication devices such as radios for receiving broadcast radio frequency (RF) signals, processing the RF signals, and broadcasting audio information to passengers. Satellite digital audio radio (SDAR) services have become increasingly popular, offering digital radio service covering large geographic areas, such as North America. Other geographic areas, such as Europe, are also beginning to offer SDAR services. These services typically receive uplinked programming which, in turn, is provided to subscriber RF receivers via satellites or terrestrial receivers. Each subscriber to the service generally possesses a digital radio having an RF receiver and one or more antennas for receiving the digital broadcast.
In satellite digital audio radio services systems, the radio RF receivers are generally configured to tune to certain frequencies, receive digital data signals at those frequencies, and decode the digital data signals, which typically include digital audio programming, such as, for example, songs. In addition to broadcasting the encoded digital quality audio signals, the satellite service may also transmit data that may be used for various other applications. The broadcast signals may include advertising, information about warranty issues, information about the broadcast audio programs, and news, sports, and entertainment programming. Thus, the digital broadcasts may be employed for any of a number of satellite audio radio, satellite television, satellite Internet, and various other consumer services.
In typical RF receivers receiving analog RF signals, such as, for example, FM radio signals, the RF receiver has one FM tuner that is configured to tune in various FM radio stations located at different FM frequencies, based on user input. In operation, a user of a typical FM receiver will use a dial or other input means to select a certain frequency for the FM tuner, and will then hear audio programming, such as songs, being broadcast at the selected FM frequency. If the user desires to change frequencies to see what may be playing on another channel (i.e. FM frequency), the user will typically use the dial or other input means to change the frequency. Once a new frequency has been selected in the tuner, the user will be able to hear audio programming being broadcast on the new selected frequency. Because the timing of the changing of frequencies by a user is unpredictable, and is not synchronized to the broadcast of audio content on any given frequency, a user may encounter audio programming at various stages of playback when a new frequency is tuned in. For example, when a user tunes to a new frequency, the user may encounter a song that has just started, is in the middle of the song, or is nearing the end of the song. Alternatively, the user might encounter commercials or other broadcast audio.
Increasingly, RF receivers may include multiple tuners. These tuners may be preset to certain frequencies, or may be selectable or reconfigurable by the user to tune to various frequencies. In a multi-tuner scenario, in addition to having the option of changing the frequency of a given tuner in order to select programming that may be available at another frequency, a user may also have the option of simply selecting a different tuner that is already set to another frequency, thereby using that different tuner as the source for audio programming. Using multiple tuners may provide certain advantages to users, such as, for example, decreasing the amount of time required to hear content broadcast on a different frequency. However, even though multiple tuners may provide advantages over single tuner receivers, the problem discussed above with respect to the asynchronous nature of broadcast audio programming and user-initiated frequency changes remains. In other words, users changing frequencies by selecting a different tuner may still encounter a song that has already started when switching tuners. This can be frustrating to users, particularly if the song encountered in-progress is a song that the user would like to have heard in its entirety.
What is needed is a system and method that enables audio receiver users encountering a song or audio program already in progress when changing audio channels and/or frequencies, to hear the entire song and/or audio program from its beginning.